


Will You Be My Valentine?

by NothingRemainsUnsaid



Category: Hyena (TV 2020)
Genre: F/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:41:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25415587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NothingRemainsUnsaid/pseuds/NothingRemainsUnsaid
Summary: Ju Ji Hoon travels back in time to meet Kim Hye Soo for Valentine’s Day.
Kudos: 9





	Will You Be My Valentine?

“There are people who think that things that happen in fiction do not really happen. These people are wrong.”

― Neil Gaiman

Prologue

Kim Hye Soo hears the knock on her door. She looks at the one that leads to her garage.

He’s home.

In the doorway, she finds him drenched from the rain. Their eyes meet. She sighs and lets him through. He takes off his jacket and shoes and hangs them by the door, so as not to track water into the house, slipping into one of the pairs of slippers she keeps there for him.

He goes straight to the bathroom. When he comes out, drying his hair with a towel, he’s not wearing a shirt. His muscles glisten with beads of rain. She looks away.

This is not the time to get distracted.

“Where were you?”

“Around.”

She sighs at the answer.

“How long are you going to keep doing this, Ji Hoon?”

He looks at her, his eyes intense.

“I don’t know. How long will you keep me your secret?”

He turns around, not waiting for the answer. He wants to tell her it doesn’t mean anything. That it doesn’t bother him that it’s been years and she’s never acknowledged him publicly, not even once. But it matters, so he turns away, tucking the towel around his neck. He doesn’t want her to see his eyes, because hurt that keen, that potent, had to show.

Her arms wrap around him from behind, though, and stops him in his tracks.

“Don’t. You’ll get wet.” He admonishes her.

“You’re warm enough.” She presses a kiss to his spine, before nestling her cheek against his back.

Her touch and the soft register of her voice soothe him. He releases a sigh, the tension going out of his shoulders. He wraps a hand around hers after a moment, their fingers entwined. He pulls at her until they’re standing face to face. She tips her head to one side and asks:

“Are you still angry?”

Her eyes are clear and hold no impatience or annoyance. It strikes him that she should be annoyed that he’d walked out on their argument earlier. But she doesn’t waste time on petty grievances.

“I’m not.”

_Not anymore._

He gives a kiss to the back of her hand. At 5’6, she’s taller than most women. But she’s tiny compared to his 6’2 height. Tiny or not, this woman holds so much power over him that it surprises him sometimes how she barely reaches his chin.

“Do you think I want this?” Her voice is soft, her gaze on him.

He looks into those eyes. He knows what he took on when they started this relationship. He’d said he’d be happy with anything. Oh, how wrong he was.

Three years down the road, it’s starting to get to him. He realizes lovers are greedy. He wants more. But he knows that this relationship already means more to her, that no one’s ever made her feel the way he has.

“Do you think I want to sneak out on dates, say we’re just friends, and pretend I feel nothing for you?”

His eyes don’t leave her face. He listens to every word.

“Do you think I like it that I can’t tell the world that I’m yours?”

He wonders how she can say these things calmly, how the softness in her voice undercuts the bitterness and heartache they feel over their situation.

“I don’t. But I fell in love with you. A 49-year-old woman who should’ve known better.”

“I’m not a child. I wasn’t a child when this started, nor am I one now. And I’m already 40.” He says that with a decisive jerk of his chin.

They did a legal series three years ago: Hyena. While the script had given them a chance to flex their acting chops—her, especially, since there were (still are) very few characters in the mold of Jung Geumja—the show is most notable to everyone for one thing: it brought their scorching chemistry to the small screen.

No one had seen it coming. Not the people on the production team, the audience that generated more than 1 million views on Naver, and certainly not Hye Soo and Ji Hoon. No one was more blindsided than these two, especially when that draw—that onscreen connection—continued when the cameras stopped rolling.

She smiles with gentle amusement now, remembering that time.

“You’ll always be a man-child.”

“I’m man enough for you.”

Her laughter fills the room. It’s been years but he still makes her laugh. The happy sound dispels some of his unhappiness at the way they have to hide from the rest of the world.

Looking at her, he knows how lucky he is, though. He releases a low chuckle, nipping at those smiling lips.

“I’ll always be older—”

“So what? I’ll always be taller. You don’t hear me rubbing that into people’s faces every day.”

She snickers. It’s such a playful sound that it warms his heart.

“That’s different. Age is—”

“I don’t care. I’m also quicker in the shower. I’m a better cook—”

“Ya! My cooking isn’t bad—”

“Mine’s better. And I’ll always be—”

“What? You’ll always be? A better kisser? Sexier? You’re—”

Ji Hoon cups her cheek in one hand, his thumb gently tracing her lower lip. He leans down when she opens her mouth. Before their lips meet, he says:

“I’ll always be yours, Hye Soo. Don’t ever forget that.”

_The year is 2022._

PART 1

1

_What do you say about a 53-year old woman who just died?_

That fans worshipped her all over the world. That she had an eclectic taste and adored beauty in many forms: books, paintings, and songs. She had a soft spot for babies. And last month, on Valentine’s Day, you asked her to marry you.

_What do you say about a woman who just died?_

That she said yes. That her eyes are the most beautiful you’ve ever seen.

That she loved life. And _“The Beatles.”_

And you.

*

Ji Hoon walks through the door. He is exhausted to the bone. It’s been three months since the funeral. The tributes and messages don’t stop.

The keepsake gift boxes, the flowers, and messages, the food baskets, they all keep coming. Her agency has been flooded with gifts. Their home is also overflowing with the same as family, friends, and colleagues send them over.

If she saw all these right now she’ll be happy at the sight of so many flowers—

What does he call this house now?

He can’t sleep. The bedsheets carry her scent. All his nightshirts smell of her. She loves—loved—wearing them to bed. He thinks about getting up and tossing the shirt into the hamper. But when he does, he can’t bear to let go of the hem, gripping it tightly instead.

He can’t bear to let go.

Sometimes, when he’s lost in thought, he starts talking. He turns around, fully expecting to see her. If she laughs, she’ll scrunch up her nose and he’ll see the adorable wrinkles on her nose bridge peek out. He won’t let her catch her breath, taking her into his arms instead and she’ll let out a shriek before she’ll start laughing again. Somehow, that’s what he expects to see—

Some days, when his mind is still asleep, he thinks he’s back in the same universe. He’ll reach across the bed for her. When he doesn’t find her, he’ll think she’s whipping up kimchi pancakes in the kitchen, cleaning her brushes in the studio, or reading scripts aloud in the garden. All he has to do is walk out of the room and she’ll be there.

Every day, he wants to wake up in that universe. Every day, for a few moments, he still thinks she’s home.

*

No one ever tells you about grief. The moment you love, though, you realize what it is. Love means recognizing the one whose loss you will carry around forever.

Friends and family comfort him. They tell him things will be better.

But the simple and terrible truth is that he won’t see her walk through that door again. He’ll never get another chance to tease her about doing a nude painting of him—or even one for him. He won’t see her happily cry over friends having babies.

Now he understands why people say all sorrows feel ancient. It’s only been a few months, but it feels like years.

Their friends and family say it will get easier. They believe the dead lose their power to hurt you over time.

He knows better. He knows how memories work.

One minute he’s fine and enjoying a cup of coffee. He steps out into the garden for a bit of sunshine. He’s all right. He’s doing better. Only for his eyes to alight on the potted peonies beside the bench he’d put in there for her, the one under the shade. The flowers bloom so cheerfully the sight sends a fresh wave of grief through him.

She loved peonies.

*

No, he’s not going to move on.

Not any time soon. Not in a lifetime. People in love are always excited to tell you about having something or someone they want above all else in the world. That one person in life they’ll give up everything for.

But no one ever tells you about the loneliness of losing the person you’d give up everything for.

The day he found out she wasn’t coming home anymore, he felt all the fierce and gentle creatures, the flowers and the trees, all the valleys and the mountains, all the stars and the seas, die. Every song, story, and dream that ever touched him, every particle of goodness and truth—everything beautiful in the universe was gone.

How can the world stay the same? How can the same sunlight and skies remain?

*

But time doesn’t stop for anyone. The world keeps turning. Only, the rest of his life stretches out like the remains of a lost city in the desert: empty, with no air, color, or inhabitants. All he has inside him are darkness and sand.

He’d give anything—everything—to change that. To be where she is, to see her again. To touch her and kiss her, to say for even one last time—

What will it take to bring her back? But maybe he’s asking the wrong question. What will it take for him to come back?

What will it take to keep this black hole from growing inside him?

*

When he wakes up, he doesn’t immediately open his eyes.

He doesn’t wonder what day it is today. One day merely blurs into the next.

It’s been months, they tell him. But it only feels like yesterday when she’d laughed, kissing him before stepping out the door. Every day, there’s the same emptiness in the rooms and the halls.

When he moves around a bit, though, something feels strange. It takes him a moment to realize he doesn’t smell her in the bedsheets. He’s not ready to wake up to that, though, not yet. He doesn’t want to think of how final it will feel when their bed and his shirts no longer hold her scent.

The thought is enough to send him into a mild state of panic as he gingerly sits up, knuckling open tired eyes. But the sheets feel different. When he finally realizes what he’s looking at, his eyes widen in shock. His palms slap against his shoulders, chest, down to his legs, all in sheer surprise. With a frown, he glances about. It’s his old bedroom.

He leaps off the bed, taking in everything for the first time. His old baseball cap is on the floor. His Ninja Turtle’s backpack is near the door. His notebooks and schoolbooks are scattered everywhere. When he picks one up, the date on top catches his eye: 1992.

He’s gotten his wish. Somehow, he’s back.

He’s ten years old.

2

It's two days before Valentine’s Day when Hye Soo finds out her boyfriend is cheating on her. She’s at a café, crying. She’s thankful there aren’t many customers at this time and the booths offer a bit of privacy.

She needs that. After a successful career as a child actress and now working as an actress in her 20s trying out more mature roles, she’s easily recognizable. Without makeup, though, she looks so much younger than her years. But there’s a remote chance that someone may recognize her, especially her eyes—they stand out so much—so she still wears dark, big glasses and an oversized hoodie.

“Does cheesecake make you sad?”

Hye Soo doesn’t immediately register someone else’s presence. She lifts her head and sees the little boy standing beside the booth. He looks about ten or eleven, with even features and a strikingly sharp nose.

His eyes catch her attention, though. They look so serious. When he keeps staring at her, she realizes he’s holding out a bit of pastry in a wrap.

“Mine’s apple pie. We can trade.”

She checks if her sunnies are still in place. She wipes the tear tracks off from her cheeks, trying to sniff as quietly as possible.

“Or, maybe you can get another cake. One that won’t make you cry.”

For some reason, that makes her laugh. When she looks at him again, he's sliding into the seat, right across from her. He catches her surprise.

“I can eat my wrap here. So, you won’t be alone.”

Before she can say that she’s perfectly fine alone, he says:

“My sister told me to wait for her in this cafe. She’s supposed to watch over me but she’s on a date.”

Hye Soo bites her lower lip in consternation. Brow furrowed, she’s not sure if she should make him go away. Just when she’s about to tell him to go, he lowers his head, concentrating on eating his apple pie, his shoulders tense. The sight leaves a pinched sensation in her chest.

_He’s so young._

She has a soft spot for kids. It comes from having a sister and three brothers. What does it matter if he stays inside the booth for the next few minutes at least? No one will come, anyway. She doesn’t have a date anymore.

“How old are you?”

He looks up. His eyes seem to stare intently into hers before he drops his gaze, taking his time with the pastry wrap, afraid she’ll kick him out of the booth if he’s done.

He makes every bite last.

“I’m ten. You?”

“I’m older.”

He rolls his eyes at her answer, as though to say: obviously.

“You’re probably sixteen,” he says.

She smiles. She’s more than six years older than him, even twice as old as that. But she doesn’t correct him.

*

Ji Hoon sees that smile. He knows how old she is, of course. But he’s not supposed to. Beyond that, he has the very devil of a time reconciling his memories with what he sees. Just a few months ago, she’d turned 53. They’d celebrated with friends and family over cheesecake and wine. And had made love long into the night.

Who knew the next time they see each other, she’ll be 22? He never thought he'll see the day that he’ll be older than her.

“Are you always this talkative?”

She asks this with a smile, trying to get him to talk. She herself needs time to open up to people. That may be why he isn’t saying anything else.

“I’m not. I mean, I’m not talkative.” Everyone who knows him at this age will say he’s painfully shy. “But I saw you crying.”

That isn’t true, though. She’s fairly well-hidden in the booth. But he knew she’d be there, just as he knew enough to come here today.

“Then why did you come over? Don’t boys hate it when girls cry?”

And he remembers: she knows how little boys think. She has brothers. He also remembers how those brothers had been inconsolable at the funeral.

He looks at the face he knows so well and wonders about what to say. In six months, they would have been married. Now, she doesn’t recognize him, much less know him. And he’s stuck in the body of a ten-year-old.

What else can he do but shrug? What else can he say but:

“I was curious. I don’t know anyone who cries over cheesecake.”

She chuckles.

“Why would you think that?”

“Cakes remind me of birthdays parties. They’re happy things. Crying over them means it’s something awful.”

She tilts her head to one side, giving him a thoughtful smile. He can tell she’s surprised and charmed by his observation.

“So, what do you like?”

“Music.”

_And you_ , he can’t help but add.

“Really? What kind?”

“I listen to a lot. But my favorite right now are songs from The Beatles. Maybe you don’t know them.”

She chuckles a little. He knows it’s over his assumption when the Big Four has always been one of her favorite bands. They talk some more.

*

She doesn’t notice the time.

She finds out they both listen to Hold My Hand on loop. He’s learning how to play the piano, loves to sing, and wants a cat but will settle for a puppy. She tells him she has tiny dogs, loves to paint, and her favorite is cheesecake. She orders two slices for them.

Her phone rings, an hour later—or is it an eternity later, as both of them lose track of time? It’s her manager. She needs to be somewhere else. Ji Hoon understands his time is up. He starts to slide out of the seat. Before he goes, though, he taps her lightly on her arm.

He doesn’t expect the current of electricity that passes through them. He doesn’t expect that touching her, even for a minute, will make him feel like a raw, open wound.

She smiles and says it’s just static.

“Don’t cry anymore,” he says, mustering everything in him to keep his expression earnest. “He’s not worth it.” His tiny face is serious.

That takes Hye Soo by surprise. He knows she’s going over the conversation, certain she hasn’t mentioned anything about that. She doesn’t notice the glasses sliding down her nose a bit, giving him a glimpse of melting brown eyes.

They look so familiar. And yet, when he looks into them, he finds none of the quiet, serene confidence he knows so well. None of the self-possession of the woman he loves.

_She’s so young._

“I can tell.” He shrugs at her. All the while, his heart is turning over and over in his chest. There’s only one thought in his head: “I miss you.” It takes everything inside him to act the way a ten-year-old boy should. To climb down from the booth, to say:

“That’s how girls cry over boys in school. Cheer up, okay?”

And still, he can’t help himself. He needs to touch her, just one more time. He reaches up, standing on tiptoes, adjusting the glasses on her nose. He pushes them back lightly, gently up her nose bridge until they cover her eyes again. Hye Soo is surprised at the tenderness of the gesture. She draws back a little from his hand.

Ji Hoon doesn't mind. Instead, he fishes for something in one of his pockets and offers it to her. When she reaches out a hand, he drops the mysterious item onto her palm. It’s a pink lollipop. She looks at him in confusion.

“That’s all I have right now,” he says, smiling. “Thank you for the cheesecake.” He gives a slight bow.

Hye Soo looks at him in surprise, and then in dismay.

“Oh, no, no, you don’t have to—”

“Happy Valentine’s Day, noona.”

He’s never called her that before, in all the years they’ve been together or known each other. Inside his head, though, he says:

_“I love you. I’ll see you, soon.”_

*

_“Noona?”_

Hye Soo gasps in mild surprise, her heart melting a little. She wonders why she’s flustered at hearing the same word her brothers use whenever they try to weasel something out of her—usually a new video game.

There’s something about the way he calls her noona, though. She can’t quite tell what it is. Before she thinks about that, he’s already walking away.

*

Seeing her a few months after he lost her unravels the black hole in his chest. Time starts ticking for him again.

He waves at her, letting her see in his eyes the love and the longing she won’t recognize. Hye Soo smiles back, lifting her hand in a wave. She will wonder, hours or even days later, why his eyes seem so happy to see her. And so sad at the same time.

Outside the café, he waits until she leaves. When she climbs into her car and drives away, the sight fills him with sweetness and grief.

3

In the previous timeline, the first time Ji Hoon catches sight of Kim Hye Soo, it’s 1995. She’s in several movies and TV shows that year. But that’s not where he sees her.

It’s when 13-year old Ji hoon watches the newest commercial for the Wii console—he loves video games—that he loses his heart to a pair of beautiful brown eyes. She becomes his first crush.

Nine years later, he sees her in Hypnotized, followed by the Red Shoes, and Tazza in 2006. Kim Hye Soo plays the iconic role of a seductive owner of a gambling den in the film and gives the performance of a lifetime.

Her talent at showing so many sides to the character elevates Madam Jung beyond the ranks of one-dimensional villains and turns her into one of the most beloved and unforgettable figures in Korean cinema. The role allows Kim Hye Soo to make her mark and cements her place in the industry for decades to come.

Except for meeting her earlier at the café, everything else happens that way in this timeline. Everything else is the same.

*

He remembers one time in bed, how she’d recounted that afternoon at the café. She’d cringed at how silly she’d been, crying in that booth for hours. Instead of laughing at the memory, he’d made a promise instead:

“If I’d known, I’d have been there with you.”

She’d laughed that off, cooing over how cute he would have been. But waking up in this timeline has given him a chance to make good on that promise.

He doesn’t want to waste any more time. He wants to start making good on all the rest of the promises he’d made—and had yet to make—to her.

He starts modeling and auditioning for parts soon after. In 2005, he gets the call he’s been waiting for: to star in a series called “Princess Hours.” Unlike his first run, though, he wows the director—along with the audience—with his performance as the crown prince this time around. By 2006, he’s a star.

4

That year, Princess Hours launches Ju Ji Hoon into international stardom. Kim Hye Soo’s work, on the other hand, garners her wide-spread recognition and enduring renown as an A-list actress in Korea, a position she’ll enjoy for the rest of her life.

Ji Hoon remembers being 24 years old and not caring about the consequences. Oh, how he’d gotten into so much trouble then. These days, he takes the greatest care to keep everything on a professional keel. He isn’t linked to any of his costars.

At his age—he’s stuck at 41 until his physical age catches up—he can’t muster up any energy for petty fights and rumors anymore. Instead, he just smiles at his detractors, ignores any sort of friction, and just focuses on getting the job done. He discovers life is much better that way.

He also sets out to make friends with his former hyungs: Kim Nam Gil, Joo Woosung, and Ha Jung-woo. He becomes good friends again with Ji Sung and Lee Kwang Soo, too.

His sense of humor is as playful as before, but he’s now adept at curbing his tongue and speaking his mind without offending anyone. It earns him a reputation for being unfazed in his interviews, that they can toss any question his way and—unlike many other stars—he won’t back down.

Much of what they applaud (the on-the-spot wit and snappy repartees), though, is—in large part—his excellent memory at work. He’s already heard those questions before, another lifetime ago.

He becomes a media darling on the strength of his charm in front of the cameras. He just smiles at that, shaking his head in rueful amusement sometimes. He wonders what they’ll think if he says he knows which films are going to hit it big, who’s going to win at the awards show, and which of the K-pop idols are really dating. He knows more: how the world will change in ten to twenty years.

To Ji Hoon, all these mean one thing: he’s getting closer to her. He’s not sure how, but he knows he’s not going to wait another ten or fifteen years before she’s back in his life.

In this timeline, she’s now 36 years old.

5

Hye Soo just finished an interview. Before she heads to her car, though, one of the producers talk to her. When she finally steps out into the hallway, she bumps into someone.

He’s tall, she thinks, as she stumbles back from colliding with a solid wall of muscle. Before she can say or do anything, though, hands wrap around her arms to keep her from falling.

“Are you all right?”

When she looks up, she sees a handsome face, one touched with a boyish charm. There’s something familiar about his eyes, though. And the expression in them makes him seem older.

She can tell he’s surprised by the way his eyes widen—for a moment—at the sight of her, by the way his hands tighten on her arms before he steps back and bows in apology.

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t looking—”

“No, no it’s fine. I wasn’t looking either.”

Then she bows and bends to reach the clutch that's fallen to the floor. He beats her to it, though, grabbing it before handing it to her.

She accepts, nodding. They smile at each other. And she can’t shake off the feeling that she’s seen him before. She never forgets a face. It’s a talent that’s helped her a lot in her work. She doesn’t realize she’s staring.

“Do you still cry over a slice of cheesecake?”

She gasps, remembering an afternoon in a café, a little boy, that pink lollipop.

“It’s you!”

He nods, his smile growing wider.

“Annyeong, noona.”

The noona gets a surprised laugh out of her.

“I’ve seen clips of your show. You’re very good.”

“Thank you, noona. Are you going somewhere? Do you have time for coffee and cheesecake?”

She thinks the invitation over.

What a happy twist of fate that the little boy she’d met years ago is now an actor. Maybe they’ll even work together someday.

She had plans to go to the flower shop after lunch, but looking into those pleading eyes, she mentally puts off her trip for another time. She’d been young and vulnerable that afternoon at the cafe. She would have cried for hours if he hadn’t been there that day.

She smiles and says yes.

6

A trip to the bookstore follows coffee and cheesecake.

Popsipetel is one of her favorite shops, full of art books, DVDs, old records, classics and more. Hye Soo has the best time browsing through the collection. Some people think of these as relics of the past. He smiles, though, knowing her enduring fondness for things that last.

He lets her wander the aisles. Something inside him eases when he sees her happiness over her newest finds. They exchange phone numbers before saying good night. It’s not long before they text each other regularly. He sends her photos of flowers, the sky, his sandwich, and his dog, Botan.

She does the same. She doesn’t wonder why it’s different with him. She would have felt awkward doing this with someone else.

She doesn't wonder why she likes it when he calls her noona.

*

Ji Hoon is careful. He doesn’t want a scandal in this timeline. He keeps busy, honing his acting skills, and working till he drops. It’s the only coping strategy that works when his memories get the best of him. It’s come to a point that she’ll text him often, reminding him to take a rest, so he doesn’t burn out.

He takes on challenging roles. She continues to create memorable characters. To the rest of the world, they’re busy with projects. Under all that, though, is the constant communication.

Both of them have no relationships in this timeline.

However, her mother’s problems persist. When she finds herself in a bit of financial trouble, he calls and tells her he knows she’s planning to move to a smaller apartment. He offers her the use of one of his units until she’s back on her feet.

She says no, but he’s insistent.

“No one will know. It’s completely secure. If you move someplace else, I’ll only turn up there. You wouldn't want reporters swarming that place.”

Exasperated, she agrees.

He doesn’t tell her he’s bought the entire building. He doesn’t tell her it’s her building—Jung Geumja’s—a character she hasn’t even met or know yet.

He’s been lucky. Over the years, he’s worked hard and saved. He invested in Apple stocks, Samsung, and other blue-chip companies he’d remembered. Once he bought the building—a hotel property—he was content to leave the management and daily operations to the hotel group that sold it to him.

He can’t wait to tell her all about it. Someday.

*

A week later, when she opens the door to the unit, the first thing she sees is the candy dish on the side table, brimming with pink lollipops. When she steps into the central living room, she sees vases full of flowers everywhere.

They’re peonies, her favorite.

At the sight, she feels her heart turn over in her chest. How does he always seem to know exactly what she needs?

She doesn’t realize the happy sigh that escapes her when she lowers her head to sniff at the flowers and admire them. She’s thankful they’re very good friends, and for whatever stroke of luck brought Ji Hoon into her life.

_Are you sure you’re just friends?_

She tries to tamp down on that emotion hard.

She’s not going to lie to herself. She feels something for Ji Hoon that she’d rather not examine, say, or name. But their friendship is already a bedrock of support and a source of happiness for her. She’s not going to do anything to rock the boat, or even tip it over.

7

Her film is having a successful run at the cinema.

Hye Soo plays fan-favorite Pepsi in The Thieves. She’s at one of the major screenings. And while he’s made her promise to let him know when she has events like this so he can offer his support, she doesn’t text him about this one, knowing he’s busy finishing up work for MBC’s medical drama, the Medical Top Team.

That’s why she’s surprised when she gets his text, the one that says, “I’ll be there. See you.” An hour later, she hears one of the women in the crowd whistle and say: “He can call me noona any damn day.” Other voices chime in agreement. “He’s so hot.” “Look at all that leg.” “Those eyes are sexy.”

Hye Soo’s attention is caught by that sentiment. Who could they be talking about? Curious to see which of the cast members star in their fantasies, she turns around.

Ji Hoon is across the room, calling out to her.

“Noona! Noona!”

She schools her features before she smiles at him. She doesn’t realize how her eyes light up, though, when she sees him. How they laugh when they’re together.

Later, when he’s seated by her side and they're deep in conversation, they don’t notice everyone else staring at them, at the way they focus solely on each other. They don’t hear the collective sigh in the room when she rubs his ear absently with a hand or whenever someone hears him call her noona.

8

He drops by to see how she’s settling into her new place. He’d gone with her to see the property before she’d bought it. A safe neighborhood, accessible to work, near enough to him so he can come by and best of all, private, so she doesn’t have to worry about reporters turning up in the parking lot.

“I wasn’t expecting you,” she says, smiling at him absently while she tosses the salad. She’d been preparing dinner when he’d rang the door.

For a minute, he’s tempted to say: “I wasn’t prepared for you, too. Nor for this.”

When he’d signed up for Hyena, he hadn’t known how it would all go. He hadn’t been prepared for the way his life would change, or for what they would mean to each other.

Instead, he smiles, asking her about her day. Telling her about the latest gossip he’s picked up from one of his Hyungs. But when he moves to lounge against the counter and she turns that way to open a cabinet, they find themselves too close. She moves away first.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“You fairly jumped a few feet away. And you didn’t do that because you hated my body spray or aftershave. I'd have known that by now.”

She snorts out a laugh.

“Don’t be too sure of that.”

He lets that go, recognizing the attempt to put them back on an even keel.

“What’s wrong? What’s on your mind?”

She breathes out a sigh, running her tongue over her upper lip before biting the lower one. Those little habits drive him crazy. It takes him a moment to focus on what she's saying:

“I don’t know what I’m doing with you.”

So, he isn’t the only one feeling out of his element. It’s been six years since they’ve bumped into each other in that hallway. He’s done everything he can to give her space and still make her feel she can rely on him for anything.

“Well, right now, we’re having dinner.”

She stares at him and that makes him look down for a moment. He chooses his next words with care.

“If I tell you I love you, what will you do?”

Her eyes widen, seeking his out.

“What? It’s not really a surprise, is it? I’ve loved you for years.”

You can't imagine how many years it’s been.

“Ji Hoon, you’ve just turned 30. I’m 42. Do you know what that means?”

“That I love you? That age doesn’t—"

“It does. It matters. Everyone will say—”

“I’m not everyone. And it doesn’t matter. There’s always been something between us.”

“This? Mi-ryun. Foolish feelings. That’s all they are—"

“Do you want to date me, noona?”

The question completely throws her off. It flusters her. And the way he says noona fires up her blood, at the undertone of confidence in his voice, as though he knows that she’ll never say no.

He smiles at her cheeks turning red.

“Are you listening to me? Did you hear what I said? How can you joke at a time like this—”

“Do you want to date me, Hye Soo?” He walks to her.

She just laughs in disbelief. He comes closer until their bodies are nearly a breath apart.

“Say yes.”

“Ji Hoon, whatever we have between us has no future.”

“We don’t need to talk about the future right now, do we?”

He doesn’t say more. That he’s seen the future. He’d been right there with her. How can he make this woman believe that they’d made every single day of that life happy? That every single worry hadn’t mattered in the end? What had only mattered was love.

But this isn’t the right time for that confession. Someday, he’ll tell her how they’d fallen in love with each other in two lifetimes. How he’d come back for her.

He kisses her. It’s the first time he presses his lips to hers. Everything in him sighs. He knows they have a lot to work out. But he savors the moment, feeling like he’s come home at last.

The knot in his heart finally loosens up since he’d woken up in this timeline.

For now, though, he lets her think they only have tonight. He knows she’ll only accept this arrangement if they have no agenda—no further designs or interests—on each other. She doesn’t want to worry about consequences, of being found out or falling out of love. He could have told her they’d never have to worry about any of those outcomes.

She thinks she only wants a one-night stand. This time tomorrow, they won’t need to talk about this again. Tonight, they can enjoy each other as only those without a future can.

_It’s an ironic thought, considering that the man she loves is from nearly ten years in the future she doesn’t believe in._

9

The kiss is everything a kiss should be. Sweet, and just a little hungry, a little desperate with need.

It’s been so long since he’d held her—or anyone—in his arms.

The slow kiss turns frantic as need from years of tiptoeing around each other, around the attraction they both feel, catch up with them.

“Here?”

He asks when he breaks off the kiss to struggle out of his shirt. She nips at the pulse along his neck. Then licks the hollow at the base of his throat. He lets out a strangled moan.

But when he hitches her up against the counter, it’s too high. He looks around and catches sight of her breakfast nook. It’s just the perfect height. He lifts her, hands firm around her hips and carries her right across the room. He puts her down on the table.

She looks up, confused.

“The height won’t work with your countertop.” She blushes. “Besides, now, I know why they call it a breakfast nook. It’s a nice spot for nookies.”

“We’re not having breakfast now—”

“That just means we need to do this again to get it right. Also, who says I’m not having any right now?”

He unbuttons her blouse and thinks back to the first time he sees her naked. The full breasts, the voluptuous hips, the long legs. Her body is as soft and smooth as he remembers.

As for her, she can’t remember how long it’s been since she’d felt awkward about her body. Years, almost decades, not since she started working in this industry. And yet with him, she feels shy.

He kisses the pulse along her neck, the sides of her breasts, before moving downwards, relearning the flavor of her body. He licks her until she comes.

Three years later while he’s filming some of the love scenes for the period drama film, Treacherous, this is what he’ll think about: her shaky exhale, the flutter of her lashes, her eyes blurry with need, lost in the sensation of what they can make each other feel. He’ll imagine the way she moans when he touches her, the heat when he’s inside her—

An hour or two later, they cuddle up in bed.

Hye Soo knows Ji Hoon is different from all the rest. They already have a connection. Whatever’s between them won’t be easy to end. Whatever they share won’t be so easy to break.

“I love you, Hye Soo.”

She doesn’t say anything, doesn’t give the words back. He doesn’t mind. He sleeps with an arm around her.

She curls into his warmth, thinking about what this means. The backlash they’ll face, the comments, the stares. Their careers. And she weighs all that against the unhappiness of a life that doesn’t include the man beside her.

_I love you, too._

But she can’t say the words out loud. Is she doing the right thing?

Lying in his arms, she no longer wonders why the first time she hears him say “I love you,” it sounds like tenderness and heartbreak.

10

She’s not in bed when he wakes up.

He checks the kitchen and her studio before he finally notices the sliding doors to the garden. He finds her outside, sitting on a bench. There’s a steaming cup of coffee beside her.

“Good morning.”

When he lowers his head to kiss her, she turns her face away.

“Ji Hoon, we need to talk—”

He smiles. She doesn’t change, does she? Whether in that lifetime or this one.

He knows she already loves him, though. They wouldn’t be here otherwise. All he has to do now is wait for her brain to catch up with her heart.

“Let’s forget this happened—”

“I refuse.” He tempers the words with a smile, as he picks up the mug, drinks from it, and sets it aside, sitting beside her instead.

“Did you ever stop to think about what this will mean?”

“I did. And the only answer I arrive at is: I love you. We can work on everything else.”

“Nothing about this—nothing I’ll do—is going to make you happy.”

He knows what she’s talking about. She’ll ask him to hide it. She’ll never acknowledge him in public. They may never get married.

But he’s been through all that. At this point, he’s ready for anything. She doesn’t know how ready he is for anything.

“It’s not your job to make me happy,” he says this as he takes her hand. “I’m not going to expect you to jump through hoops just to make me happy. I’m not going to put all that responsibility on you. Let’s make ourselves happy instead. What we can promise is this: let's do our best to protect each other’s happiness.”

They reach for each other. After a kiss, she reaches for his hand and they walk back into the house.

11

He loves performing in front of a crowd, the energy it gives him. This is the first time in years that he’s doing a concert. It’s his way of thanking his fans.

Hye Soo is nowhere in sight. They’ve established early on that they won’t do public dates. While he wipes away at the sweat, resting between sets, he can’t help but smile over the past.

He looks back on all those fights a lifetime ago. It used to make him feel bad when she wouldn’t come. Even when they’d talked about it. Even when he’d understood why. Against all those reasons, he’d still sulk.

At one point, he’d walked out on her. An hour or so later, he’d come home, drenched from the rain. He’d been upset over hiding their relationship. Over her refusal to come to another concert.

Now, he’s just happy they’re where they are today.

The biggest change is, he never asks Hye Soo to come to any of his concerts in this timeline. He’s learned his lesson. He doesn’t want to put that pressure on her. Instead, he lets her know where he’s going to be and where she can watch or how, if she wants to.

Besides, he can always sing for her whenever they're in the shower.

*

The crowd’s wild tonight.

The cheers and roars along with whoops of joy, gasps and laughter can be heard all around. He belts out another line, sweating under the lights. He’s not tiring, though. He’s got so much energy to finish off a few more sets before they say good night.

He waves at his fans and out of nowhere, a big light stick pops up in the crowd. It stands out from the many light sticks out there, not just for its size, for its design: it’s not the same one used by the members of his fans club.

This one is a lollipop light stick in bright pink.

He sucks in a breath. He takes a step forward before he remembers where they are, who they are. That he's onstage. That she's not supposed to be here. He closes his eyes. Everything inside him overturns with happiness.

He throws a big smile at the crowd, knowing that the huge screen onstage captures his every expression.

The lollipop light keeps moving with the beat. The sight makes him laugh, imagining how cute she is, waving her hands in the air, bopping her head to the music.

“Thank you for coming tonight, everyone. Please let me take this chance to dedicate the next song to someone close and special to me. You’re the music in my life and the laughter in my body. You’re the heartbeat in my soul. This one's for you.”

The crowd erupts in squeals, happy shouts, and gasps. He starts to play “Yellow,” his fingers moving over the strings of his guitar. He pours out his soul into every line, and sings like crazy, knowing that somewhere in the cheering crowd is the woman he loves.

*

He’s killing it tonight.

She doesn’t tell him she’s been watching his concert the past three nights. She’s watched all of them. She just hasn't told him (that’s been true for the first timeline, too.)

She settles back into her chair in tonight’s disguise: a cap, jeans, a shirt, and a leather jacket, all in black. She's also wearing a mask. She’s not anywhere in the front section. That will make her too easy to spot. Instead, she’s somewhere in the middle.

But tonight, she wants him to know she’s there. Tonight, no one can tell them who they are or what they can be to each other.

When he dedicates a special number to her—one of her favorites from Coldplay—she lets out a deep belly laugh. And when he starts to sing, she waves her hands in the air like she doesn’t care, chanting at the stage, cheering him on.

*

The night isn’t even over yet when entertainment channels and sites pick up the juicy tidbit about his special number. Rumor mills and gossip sites work overtime to report that Ji Hoon-sshi had done a special number for a special someone. Some argue it could have been a friend but “the heartbeat in my soul” definitely doesn’t sound like something you'd say to a friend.

The question on everyone’s mind is: who’s the lucky lady? Speculations run rampant for weeks, even months. Several actresses are mentioned in multiple reports.

None come close to guessing the correct answer.

12

Hye Soo usually goes home before the last number. This time, she waits until the auditorium is nearly empty before getting up and heading to her car.

When she gets home and into the garage, he’s there, lounging against the hood of his own ride. A silly smile spreads across her face, the impish grin she makes when she’s having fun.

“So, I had a fan tonight.” He starts talking as soon as she steps out of the car.

“And?”

“Well, I think she likes me.”

She bites her lower lip, trying to hold back a laugh.

“Does she? Do you think so? That’s awfully presumptuous of you—”

“Well, she did leave a big clue.”

“What?”

“She brought along a special light stick, shaped like a giant lollipop.

“Hmm.”

“And then there’s this other thing.”

“Hmm?”

“She looks an awful lot like you.”

And he stops in front of her. Looking at her from head to foot. She just lazily looks up to him. Her smile is both impish and naughty.

“What are you going to do about it?”

His hands go around her waist to tug her closer until there's nothing between their bodies, not even air.

“I think I’m going to keep her.”

When he looks at her, he shakes his head. His love for her strikes him at the oddest times. God help anyone who ever sees that smile.

Still drunk on that smile, he forces her to take a few steps back until she’s trapped against the hood of another car. He steps between her legs, hitching her up.

She feels him pull up her shirt, before sucking one hard nipple, grazing the tip with her teeth. She doesn't wear a bra. The sensation is electric and sends heat throughout her body. Once she’s panting for breath, he presses his lips to her belly. He licks every inch of skin he reveals. When she whimpers, he smiles, shucking off her jeans, and diving in.

It takes a while before he stands up. When he does, she’s all but limp on the hood of the car. He doesn’t take long. With one hard thrust, he’s inside her. He finds it amazing that her body is so sensitive. So ready.

“You’re so wet.”

She groans, taking in a shuddering breath. She can feel her cheeks warming up with embarrassment. He laughs.

“They’re right, you know.”

“What?” She can’t think of anything else when he does this.

“You’re kinda cute.”

She sputters out a laugh. As one of the most beautiful women in South Korea, they both know she’s more than cute. Her face has been splashed across the front pages of magazines since she was 16.

But the laugh ends in a groan when he slides deeper with another slow stroke. Then he pulls back and slams into her again, forcefully. She buries her face into his shoulder and lifts her hips.

Seeing him perform had turned her on. She’d shouted with the rest of the crowd. She’d enjoyed herself. It made her happy knowing he was doing something he loved.

When there’s a particularly violent thrust, she screams out against his flesh, fingers digging into his back as the pleasure crashes over her. He grunts in response, pinning her to the hood of the car, clutching her closer.

After a few moments, she sighs. She's trying to get her breath back, only for him to suck on the tip of one breast. The need starts to build again. She tries to push him back, to give her time to breathe.

“No, again. Take it.”

She sobs, weakly.

It takes them about half an hour before they get out of the garage.

13

“It’s okay. I’m okay.”

He sighs and hugs her. She resists at first, before holding onto him.

“You’re crying. You’re sad because a friend died. Why are you telling me you’re okay?”

He wipes away at the tear stains over her cheeks. They’d received news early that day that one of her good friends—an actor—had passed away from a car crash. He'd been minutes away from home.

She’d gone to the funeral without telling him. He would have driven her there because he doesn’t like the thought of her driving when she’s upset. He would have waited for her in the car.

He knows months from now, when she hosts the Blue Dragons Awards that her voice will break on-air and fill up with tears. He remembers seeing her fight for composure onscreen and his heart will ache a little for her, seeing the sorrow for a friend break through her professionalism. She’s such a private person, he knows how much she’ll hate that lapse of control. And how he’ll be there to remind her:

_“It’s all right to grieve. It’s okay.”_

He doesn't tell her any of these things now, though. Looking at her crying reminds him of his own grief. The months of living alone passing in a blur. The despair that none of the well-meaning wishes and gestures could reach. Waking up every day with a black hole inside him.

“I would have picked you up, you know.”

“No, you would have had to come back around to pick me up, when you’re already much closer to home. That doesn't make sense. It would have been such a hassle to go back for me—”

“It’s not. I’ll always come back for you, Hye Soo. Always.”

She doesn’t understand the emphasis or force behind those words. Nor his fear whenever she gets behind the wheel. She doesn’t know, of course, that his fear is predicated on a future that hasn’t happened yet: her own car accident.

He doesn’t want to receive the same phone call in this lifetime.

He pulls her close. They’ve been together for four years now. Every day has been a dream. Everywhere he looks, he finds no end to his happiness.

No other end except time.

Days later, he pops the question. They celebrate with friends and family and weeks later, they register their marriage secretly.

Postscript

Ji Hoon keeps a collection of newspaper clippings featuring Kim Hye Soo.

He started doing that when he woke up in this timeline. He brings his collection along when they move in together. When she asks about it, he proudly shows her one of the clippings, with the author praising her for her captivating turn as Madam Jung.

They don’t notice another review at the back of the paper, one where another author raved about fresh talents in the Korean entertainment industry, mentioning the performance of a new actor named Ju Ji Hoon in a series called Princess Hours.

Ji Hoon and Hye Soo have fun reading over the glowing review of Tazza, not knowing that behind that piece, on the paper yellowed by dust and time, is a review of his breakout series as well.

Reviews both published on the same day, the same newspaper, and back-to-back on the same page.

_Sometimes, coincidence is just fate that has yet to fully—perfectly—unfold._

Part 2

1

In the previous timeline, the years 2013 to 2016 see Kim Hye Soo achieve wins in local and big-screen performances from The Queen of the Office to Coin Locker and the award-winning Signal.

Ju Ji Hoon, on the other hand, experiences a setback after his scandal in 2009. He enlists for the military in 2010, is discharged in November 2011, and appears in film and dramas again by 2012. In 2013, he’s back at the MBC, in the series Five Fingers. It’s a feat, as the network was one of the first of the three to ban him back in 2009.

2016 is an excellent and busy year for both. Ten years after Tazza, Kim Hye Soo’s role in Signal wins her the Daesang. After Ji-hoon’s breakthrough success in 2006, he completes the hit film Along with the Gods in 2016, a role that garners him worldwide appeal and acclaim.

He follows this up with Kingdom 1 & 2\. When November of 2019 rolls in, he dives into a project, excited to work with a sunbaenim he’s long respected and admired.

That project changes his life.

2

In the previous timeline, Ju Ji Hoon often wonders if coincidences are real. Why, on some days, he feels that vague sense that he has yet to meet someone. Why does it feel like he’s always missing something?

_He’s not wrong, though. For that vague sense of always being in the periphery of something else. Of always missing a connection to someone who isn’t even there._

_But the universe says: it’s not time yet. Instead, the powers that be have fun resorting to coincidences, one after another._

*

In 2006, Hye Soo works with Kim Yoon-seok, who plays a villain in Tazza. They appear again in the 2012 commercially successful movie, The Thieves. Ju Ji Hoon works with the same man in The Dark Figure of Crime four years later.

Kim Hye Soo’s Eleventh Mom (2007) is released in theaters. One of her co-stars is Hwang Jung-min, who she’s previously worked with in the 2002 film, YMCA Baseball Team. Ju Ji Hoon works with him in Asura: The City of Madness nine years later and again, two years after, in The Spy Gone North.

Ju Ji Hoon also works with Yoo Ah-in the film, Antique, in 2008. In 2018, Kim Hye Soo works with him in Default. 2008 also sees Kim Hye Soo take on a lead role in Modern Boy, where she works with Kim Nam Gil. Kim Nam Gil becomes good friends with Ju Ji Hoon.

2009 sees the release of Ju Ji Hoon’s film, Naked Kitchen, which he stars with Kim Tae-won, who’s previously worked with Kim Hye Soo back in Hypnotized (2004). They also both work with Lee Jung-jae: her in The Thieves (2012) and The Face Reader in (2013), and him in Along with the Gods 1 (2017) & 2 (2018). Jeon Seok-ho plays a director in Kim Hye Soo’s Familyhood (2016). He also becomes Jo Bum-pal in Kingdom 1 & 2 and Ga Ki-Hyuk, Heejae’s best friend in Hyena (2020).

Aside from Kim Yoon-seok and Hwang Jung-min, the cast of Ju Ji Hoon’s film (The Spy Gone North) also includes Lee Sung-min, who’s worked with Kim Hye Soo in Singlehood and Cho Jin Woong—one of Hye Soo’s leading men in Signal.

There’s also Ma Dong-seok who’s in Marriage Blue with Ji Hoon and in Singlehood with Kim Hye Soo. Kim and Ju also both work with Ahn Hyun, Joo Min-ho, Gyu-su Jeong, and more.

Hye Soo’s hit Signal is helmed by the same director as Ji Hoon’s global sensation, The Kingdom. In 2021, Ji Hoon will work with the same director again, alongside Jun Ji Hyun, one of Hye Soo’s costars in The Thieves.

Also, in 2018, Ju Ji Hoon’s Along with the Gods costar, Ha Jung-woo, puts in an appearance at a government-sponsored event. He’s appointed as the National Tax Service’s Ambassador right along with an actress: Kim Hye Soo.

And when Kim Hye Soo bags the Best Actress Award at The Korea Film Actor’s Association for Coin Locker Girl in 2015, Ju Ji Hoon walks on the same stage a year later, winning in 2016 for Asura: The City of Madness.

*

_The trend continues throughout their lives, as they work with people who’ve previously worked with each other. The series of connections around them build until most of everyone else who knows them is surprised that they haven’t worked together, not even once._

_They start hearing about each other before they even meet:_

_“Oh, I’ve worked with her in… She’s wonderful. Oh, yes worked with her in…very kind. Charismatic. Gives hugs…Beautiful.”_

_“Oh, I’ve worked with him in....He’s funny. You’ll like him...Loves snacks…He’s a chatterbox…So tall.”_

_They'd just been a year apart on that stage. Imagine spending a lifetime not knowing you both inhabit the same spaces, making you so close to each other—and yet so far apart—all the time?_

*

In November of 2018, fate stops stepping around these two.

Ju Ji Hoon attends the 39th Blue Dragon Awards. He wins the Popularity Award and comes striding across the theatre floor in a pink Tom Ford suit. He shares a few moments on stage with one of the hosts of the event: Kim Hye Soo.

_When the wheels of fate start turning, destiny becomes unstoppable._

Months later, they both accept roles in a legal k-drama series. A year after they talk to each other for the first time, filming for Hyena starts.

It’s not long before they fall in love.

3

CURRENT TIMELINE

Do you ever wonder at fate?

At moments or meetings so ripe with the possibility of the future?

In the previous timeline, they share a moment on stage at an awards show. He’s nervous and tongue-tied. She tries her best to put him at ease, joking that he’s picked a pink suit because he knows he’ll win.

They look into each other’s eyes, not knowing what’s to come. That they’ll have the kind of torrid chemistry that will win them so many loyal fans. That their partnership will draw more attention to the drama, making the production team and crew happy. And that the pull—the attraction—will take them completely by surprise.

Who knew?

In the current timeline, though, they've been together since 2012. When the offers reach them about Hyena, Ji Hoon is worried. He thinks about refusing.

“Let’s do it,” she says.

“What if—?”

“Are you telling me you they’ll see right through you every time? Do you love me that much?”

She chuckles softly at him. He laughs, though in his mind, he says: “Yes, I love you that much.” But she makes him realize how silly his worries are, and her laughter eases the tension in his gut.

“We already know who we are to each other. The world doesn’t need to know more than what they see onscreen.”

He pulls her close at that.

“They don’t need to know that you’re in my bed every night,” he says with a smirk.

“Or that you’re in mine,” she says, wrapping her arms around him, showing him that irrepressibly impish grin.

4

He eats a lollipop in one of the many desk scenes in episode 1. It’s not in the script. He improvises. From the sidelines, she laughs. She understands the gesture: it’s him telling her in plain view of everyone “I love you.”

In episode 5, when their characters hide in the closet, their conversation hits close to home:

“What are we?”

“Two people in love.”

When Geumja says “Mi-ryun,” the words are an echo of their memories.

In the scene, Heejae tears up and Geumja’s eyes widen with confusion, completely taken aback. For a moment, though, if you look close enough, when they stare into each other’s eyes, they fall right back into the past.

_“…There’s always been something between us.”_

_“This? Mi-ryun. Foolish feelings. That’s all they are—"_

He can't help but wonder at where they were and be happy at where they are now.

_Note:_

_In Korean, the word refers to “foolish feelings that need to be let go.” But Netflix translates the line into: “You need to let go,” making it seem like Geumja is unaffected. The inherent ambiguity in mi-ryun is beautiful as it can apply to both of them. That means that in the show, Geumja already knows she feels something for Hee Jae but instead of acknowledging those feelings, she wants to dismiss them instead. Thank you to @my-randominterests over on Tumblr for telling me what mi-ryun means. What a beautiful insight that word brings._

*

He loves watching her transform into Geumja.

She’s a genius at bringing this character to life. The rough mannerisms, the swagger, that charming abrasiveness.

He doesn’t have a problem playing the lovestruck fool in Heejae. He’s already one for her. That’s why he has more than a bit of sympathy for his character. He knows how it feels to have the only woman who matters put you at a distance. He understands how broken Heejae is over Geumja’s betrayal.

He knows love means recognizing the one who will open up the beauty of the world inside you; and whose loss will change that universe for you.

*

FAN COMMENTS

_“What the heck is the secret of the female lead? She’s approaching 50 and looks in her 30s at most. I am so impressed by how she is defying age and of course she’s a fantastic actress. So much charisma!”_

_“First time I’ve ever seen him in love in a series.”_

_She wrote a cute little sentence and he wrote a whole paragraph 😂😂😂 I guess they're not so different from Hee Jae and Geum Ja_

_“She treats him differently than all her other leading men. They’re equals. Partners.”_

_“I rarely comment on anything here on YT but I just want to share how Hyena is such an underrated drama. It's such a joy to watch! The strong female lead with a very admirable male lead is refreshing to see! I hope to see more shows like these on Netflix! None of those sappy, cheesy, over-the-top-in-trauma-or-childhood-friends-destined-to-be tropes! HYENA Part 2!!!!”_

_“OMG I'm in love with both of them in Hyena. The chemistry is super hot.”_

_“AWWW, I am obsessed with these two!!!! I loved every second of this video. Just them having a chat feels so natural. I adore the easy affection between them, but that chemistry is phenomenal.”_

_“The chemistry between these 2 makes it seem like they could be having eye-sex @@ totally intense!!!! The drama should get more fame and attention than it does now, with a great storyline, realistic plots, femme fatale lead & cool smart masculine guy.”_

_“I have a serious crush on her, and she can CRUSH me anytime.”_

_“Ma’am, please step on me.”_

_“I haven't waited for drama updates in 5 years.... UNTIL HYENA NO JOKE. WE LOVE BADASS FEMALE LEADS!!!!!”_

_“I don’t mind even if these two are dating. You know age is just a number.”_

_“I love their chemistry. I am hoping for a second season of Hyena.”_

_“I really love hyena so far, the acting and the plot is really good. The female lead is honestly badass and different. I love that. I hope that she opens up to him ‘cause I just honestly want to see them together!!!!”_

_“This drama has me wanting to marry Kim Hye Soo she’s so captivating.”_

_“She's the ultimate girl crush!! 💕💕💕💕”_

_“Love that they just dropped the names of their critically acclaimed dramas like that.”_

_“I can watch this everyday!!! Kim Hye Soo’s laugh makes me giggle, she’s so cute and sweet 🥺❤️ I want her ... while Joo Ji Hoon is fvckin HOT! 💕💕 They have the best Chemistry and story.”_

_“Hyena is soooo cool and sexy I didn’t expect their chemistry will be that awesome. 😭_

_“I love them both, so I don’t care if they date and marry someday. ❤️”_

_“Who cares about the age gap? It’s 2020! C’mon!”_

*

Onset, they’re as professional as they can be. Except, habits formed over years of living together sometimes sneak in. It feels only natural for her to caress his ear and ask if he’s okay before a scene where she needs to hit him with a bag. It feels natural for him to make her laugh and kiss her deeper and harder than what the script calls for. It feels like the most natural thing in the world to hug her and feel her fit perfectly into his arms.

5

She starts noticing the little things: how he instinctively knows what she’ll pick from the menu when they’re in a restaurant. How a film will end. When major floods will happen, who’s going to win the next baseball match, which K-pop idols will date and marry. He doesn’t make bets with her, always saying: “I don’t want to take your money.”

At one point during a conversation, he says: “Jessica, Illinois, Chicago,” his fingers moving as though he’s quoting something in the air. He turns to her with an expectant look on his face. Then he mumbles something and hastily shifts the conversation to something else.

Two years later, they watch Parasite and she remembers that moment. How can he quote lines from a film that hasn't even been made yet?

*

“I have the strangest feeling that you know.”

They’re in the kitchen. He’s at the breakfast nook, reading emails on his phone. She’s by the cabinets, leaning against the counter, arms folded.

“What are you talking about?”

He merely looks at her for a minute before he goes back to checking his emails, wondering which new project he’ll pick.

“It's like you’ve seen it.”

“What?”

“The future.”

He stops scrolling. He puts the phone down and looks at her. He doesn’t say anything, though.

“Ji Hoon?”

After a few minutes, he nods. He's been preparing for this conversation for years.

“It’s true then. How?”

He shakes his head

“I’m not sure myself how. I’m only sure I came back for you.”

“For me? What were we?”

“In love. Living together.”

He sighs.

“You said yes.”

“We were married there, too?”

He shakes his head. She looks at him, a question in her eyes.

“I lost you a month later. A few months after that, I woke up here. Stuck in the body of a ten-year-old.”

Some things now start to make sense. How he knows what’s going to happen. Why he acts so much older than his years. How he can quote from films that haven’t even been made yet.

*

“When I lost you, the only thought in my head was how I could come back to you.”

“You could’ve moved on. Did you even try?”

He looks at her and she’s merely curious.

“I want to know that if it happens again, that you’ll fare better in this one.”

“ _Can we talk about something else?_ ” is what he wants to say. But he’s stopped avoiding difficult conversations. He’s outgrown that. He’s not going to walk out on her this time.

“People move on.”

“People who aren’t me move on,” he nods.

“Did you even give it a chance—"

He's out of the bench before she even stops talking, his long legs swiftly eating up the distance between. In seconds, his arms are over her, caging her over the counter. He stares into her eyes, and her expression is soft, the same one she has when she’s at a loss and doesn’t know what to say.

“How does anyone move on from this?”

And he kisses her. The sweetness spirals into need and lust in a heartbeat. When they break apart, her hand comes up to cradle his cheek. Her striking brown eyes stare into his, bright with unshed tears. His voice is ragged when he speaks. He leans his forehead on hers.

“It’s not that I didn’t want to. It’s only that moving on hadn’t been an option for me.”

6

How many times have we made love? he wonders. How many times has he made this body come for him?

“I remember how your hands touch me, how you smile at me, how your lips soften under my tongue.”

His lips move over her eyes and forehead, her lips. A knuckle traces her collarbone. When his hands move lower, when he spreads his fingers on one thigh, she forgets to breathe.

“I remember the sounds you make. I know your teeth and your tongue. How you look when I’m inside you.”

She gasps, as he slides into her, as he moves. He doesn’t slow down, driving inside her, filling her hard. He doesn't stop. She’s not sure her body can hold so much tension and need. When the pleasure erupts, he captures her lips, muffling her cries.

When he looks at her, he can’t help but think of how right this feels, that he’s with her, in this moment; that he's right inside her. He grabs the headboard, burying himself to the hilt. She shrieks. Before he thinks about gentling his thrusts, she arches her back and licks the firm muscles on his chest. “Make me come again,” she whispers. And he draws out then sinks back in, over and over, happy to spend the rest of his life doing this, giving her what she wants.

7

Most people think of love in an abstract way. _I’ll love you forever. I’ll love you no matter what._ But when two people live together, those aren’t the issues that come up.

Couples learn one lesson early on: love needs to survive the small moments—it needs to be in the mundane, everyday things.

It’s in how she kisses his head in the mornings when he’s not even wide awake yet. It’s in the way he remembers to reach over to her bedside table in the middle of the night to plug her phone into a charging port because she always forgets—just like Geumja. It’s how he wraps an arm around her waist, holding her in the dark. It’s in how she curls up to him while they sleep.

She frustrates him with her tendency to overthink things. He exasperates her with his inability to stop eating food that’s bad for him. She reminds him to get enough rest when he’s busy filming offsite and sends him healthy meals on set. He tells her to be careful when she gets behind the wheel and drives.

Their life is far from perfect. But being together already is.

Their love enjoys the smallness of things.

8

In the end, what he wants most out of life is this: walking out the door, holding hands. Smiling at each other before they get into the car. It’s a perfect morning.

He’s already had a lifetime or two. Who could ask for more?

He would—he’d ask for more.

He thinks that when he sees the truck rushing from the other side of the road. It doesn’t last for more than a few seconds. But if he’d known, he would have taken the other way this morning. He’d taken all precautions to keep the accident from the other timeline from happening in this one.

He hadn’t counted on it happening just about anytime, anywhere. He should have known it would happen this way: suddenly and out the blue.

Ji Hoon thinks: _I’ve underestimated fate._

He’s not afraid, though, if the end of all things approaches. He’s only ever been afraid of one thing: losing her. He turns to her now, his face calm. He’s not resigned. He’s done everything he possibly can—loved this woman twice, lived this life over, and if he has to do it again, he will, with no reservations.

When she turns to him, there’s heartbreak along with knowledge in her eyes. Their smiles are bittersweet. They both know what’s coming.

There’s no time.

They reach for each other, the same way they’ve done over the years. They kiss. The first and last words on their lips:

_I’m yours._

To belong to each other in the last moments of their lives is a gift. They don’t waste it.

He tucks her head into his chest a moment before the truck hits.

9

_**NEWS REPORT** _

Actress Kim Hye Soo, 51, and Actor Ju Ji Hoon, 39, were in a car crash Monday morning at around 6:30 a.m. in Seoul, police said. Kim’s Mercedes Benz SUV was going down Yeongdong Daero when a drunk driver at the wheel of a truck crashed into the vehicle at an intersection.

Representatives of Kim and Ju’s respective agencies are currently confirming details of the accident.

*

The crash leaves no survivors.

News of the tragedy rocks the nation and legions of fans worldwide weep. Eulogies, autobiographies, and symphonies are written as families, friends, colleagues, and fans grieve. News networks report the accident with none of their usual journalistic impartiality, many teary-eyed as they’ve been fans of either or both actors for years.

Entertainment sites and channels produce tributes. Their films and shows gain even more popularity, trending locally and overseas. Even months after their deaths, the force of the public’s love for two of the most prominent names in the South Korean entertainment industry only grows.

The attention reaches new levels of adulation when articles emerge that the two were secretly dating. Some even report they were married.

If the two had known how in love the world would be over their union and the scale of the sorrow over their untimely deaths, would they have let the world in on that secret? Would they have taken that step sooner?

Flowers, balloons, and candles as well as portraits flood the crash site. Even years later, the occasional crazy fan or two will pop up taking photos, going too far, snooping around, imagining the wreckage, trying to find whatever of them may still remain.

RESET

_But the universe isn’t entirely empty of sympathy._

_It recognizes bonds between souls. How affection survives lifetimes. The loss of her had unhinged his soul enough that he could disappear and reset an entire timeline with the uncontainable emotional magnitude of his grief. Against the enduring perplexity of their extraordinary connection, death lets the lovers be._

_Fate steps in and the day resets to that final morning._

Hye Soo and Ji Hoon walk out the door. On the way to the studio, they pass by a police officer berating a drunken driver by the side of the road. They drive on.

And live.

EPILOGUE

At home a few days later, Ji Hoon looks over at Hye Soo and says:

“It’s Valentine’s Day—"

“In six months! Ji Hoon—"

“Will you be my Valentine?”

She grins at him in amusement.

“Can I think about it?”

He laughs and pulls her into his arms.

The following year, they’ll star in another project together. During the press con, one of the reporters will ask Ji Hoon who he’ll save in case of a zombie apocalypse—as a reference to his role in global hit The Kingdom—and he’ll say:

“My wife.”

The room erupts in chaos. Questions of who she is, when they were married, and more are tossed his way, each reporter wanting the scoop. Ji Hoon fields off the questions with ease. He and Hye Soo merely smile at the cameras.

Not long after, a blind item appears about an actor’s concert and his girlfriend coming by to offer support. Articles on Ji Hoon’s concert and how he’d dedicated a song to someone special a few years back see the light of day again. A blurred photo of a fan with a pink lollipop light stick is splashed across the local dailies. The public starts connecting the dots.

Photos and videos of them emerge. At first, they’re only BTS clips from Hyena. Only for an intrepid and patient fangirl to one day catch Hye Soo’s bracelet with pink lollipops, Ji Hoon’s habit of bringing lollies to the set, and the last straw are a series of shots that show the matching wedding bands they wear on separate occasions.

They finally release a statement and confirm what the rest of the world long suspect: they’ve been in love for years and have been married in secret for five. A baby arrives that same year. She has her mother’s looks—those round, enchanting brown eyes—along with her father’s chatty disposition and height.

In numerous interviews later, everyone will ask: How did the two of you fall in love? Hye Soo and Ji Hoon only look at each other and laugh.

“When I look into her eyes, I’m already half in love.”

“His sharp Himalayan nose?”

Beyond the silliness, though, are countless memories.

For them, love means the little moments, the laughter, the pink lollipops. You love someone for coming back for you, choosing you, holding onto you. For building a life when fate seems to make that impossible. For the patience and friendship. In a world that empties you of goodness every day, someone comes along when you least expect it and fills up the void with uncommon tenderness.

But all that is still far off into the future, still a world away.

Today, she steps into his arms, breathing in his scent. He holds her tight, silhouetted against motes of summer dust and morning light. They’ve gone through lifetimes already that this moment feels like an achievement. There's no eternity beyond this.

They look at each other, knowing the answer to a question they haven’t been asked yet:

_What makes you fall in love?_

You love a person for the universe they open up inside you.

So, when he asks, over and over: “Will you be my Valentine?”

“Will you be mine? Will you—"

_You already know the answer._

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for sticking with this OTP. Love to all the Hyena fans out there. ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ 
> 
> You make this fun. 😊😊😊
> 
> To read more of my stories, visit me and my moots over at https://noth1ngremainsunsaid.wixsite.com/website/
> 
> Let's fangirl together. 😊


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